Daybed Alcove for $686

A homeowner infuses character into her 1915 home with a built-in storage bed made from stock kitchen cabinets

By Katelin Hill of - saboteamos.info magazine

Before: The homeowner’s son left for college shortly after move-in day, so his dormer bedroom sat nearly empty for months.

Sometimes a house’s history inspires the best home-improvement projects. When Tricia Wright moved into her 1915 Craftsman bungalow in Spartanburg, SC, she wanted to return to the home some of the character that had been stripped away over the years. The perfect opportunity arose in her son’s bedroom, which at the time held nothing more than a mattress. With help from her soon-to-be husband, Jason, Tricia designed a daybed packed with storage for the space. After building a platform for the bed, the couple attached prefab cabinets to each end and Jason built trundle-style drawers that roll out on casters. Two coats of leftover white paint and some matching bin pulls unified the whole assembly. To create a budget-friendly feature wall above the bed, the pair nailed up pieces of scrap wood and used leftover stain to warm them up. To disguise the popcorn ceiling, Tricia secured pine and spruce V-groove boards on top of it, then gave both the ceiling and walls a fresh look with more leftover latex. New light fixtures and on-hand accessories made the space look cozy and lived-in. Now Tricia, who blogs at Simplicity in the South, thinks the room is one of the prettiest in the house. “It feels like the starting point for everything we have planned for our home,” she says.

After: The new built-in makes the most of a natural alcove and feels in keeping with the Craftsman style of the house.$0 scrap-wood wall paneling$125 per prefab kitchen cabinet$25 light fixture

The Project Tally

Made a built-in storage bed from two prefab kitchen cabinets found at a surplus store; lumber for a mattress platform with drawers, plus two cabinet tops; and hardware $451
Turned the walls gray and the built-in white using cans of leftover paint $0
Created a feature wall with scrap wood and leftover stain $0
Covered the popcorn ceiling with 12 packs of V-groove planks and brightened them with leftover white paint $150
Added a new woven shade and plug-in sconce lights, then finished the space with existing bedding and decorative items $85